Handbook
The student handbook
What to expect from us, and what we ask of you. Read this once at the start and you will not need it again.
Before your first lesson
Test your camera, your microphone and your connection the day before, not five minutes before. Sit somewhere with light on your face and as little noise as you can manage. Have something to write with.
Turning up
Join a couple of minutes early. A lesson that starts late robs everyone in it, not only the person who was late. If you cannot make a lesson, tell us before it starts.
Cameras
We ask you to keep your camera on. Language is a face and a mouth, not only a voice, and a teacher cannot help a student they cannot see. If there is a reason you cannot, tell your teacher and we will work with it.
How to behave in a lesson
Be on time, be dressed as you would be to meet someone, and let other people finish their sentences. Nothing said in a lesson is repeated outside it. Anything unkind about someone else, in any language, ends the lesson.
Recordings
Lessons are recorded so you can watch them again. The recording belongs to the school and is not yours to download, copy or post anywhere. For a child, a parent signs a consent form first.
Talking to your teacher
Use the school channels, never a personal number or a private social media account. A teacher who is doing their job right will refuse a private message and tell you to write to the school instead.
Homework and progress
Expect roughly TO BE COMPLETED of work between lessons. It is not busywork. A language is built between the lessons and only checked during them.
If something goes wrong
Tell us early and tell us plainly. Trouble with the work, trouble with money, trouble with another student, all of it is easier to fix in week one than in week nine. The complaints procedure is there if our answer does not satisfy you.
If you are a parent
You are welcome to sit within earshot of a young child during a lesson. You will be asked for consent before your child appears in a recording, and you can withdraw that consent later without your child losing anything.
The full rules
This handbook is the short version. The full documents live on the policies page, and the two that matter most to a student are the terms and conditions and the complaints procedure.